Pixies' Black Francis on new album: "Rather than replace Kim, we needed to leave the hole there"

Pixies have opened up about the recording of new album 'Indie Cindy', stating that, after the departure of founding member and bassist Kim Deal during the sessions, the band had to "leave the Kim-shaped hole in there".

Deal left the band after a 27-year tenure and has since been replaced by a revolving string of bassists, the latest being A Perfect Circle's Paz Lechantin.

"We had this whole thing where Kim left in the middle of the record, so that was an interesting challenge. I don't think we want that kind of challenge the next time we have a session," revealed singer Black Francis, speaking recently about the event.

He continued: "The general feeling talking about it amongst ourselves, with Gil and our manager, was rather than try to replace Kim at the time, even if the record has this Kim-shaped hole in it, we needed to leave the hole there. Not 'Let's get a girl in that sounds like Kim!' We had those thoughts of course. We had to do it ourselves." "Leave it alone, and have her absence there almost like a tribute, out of respect for her," added guitarist Joey Santiago.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Francis, Santiago and drummer Dave Lovering also went into further detail about the session for 'Indie Cindy' - which marked the group's first LP release since 1991's 'Trompe Le Monde'.

When questioned as to the vocal on album track 'Bagboy' that is reminiscent of Deal, Santiago stated that the similarity was "an accident". Expanding on the subject, Francis then went on to talk about how the vocal came to appear on the song. "There was this kid who was helping us at the demo level, and he'd thrown down some vocals when I was out of the studio. Even at the time, I was like, 'Oh my gosh, it sounds exactly like Kim. Ha-ha,'' he began. "That kid helped us with a couple of other tracks and didn't sound like her. It's just the way it came out on that one track. It's unfortunate because it gave the impression to the conspiracy seekers that we were doing that deliberately to fake everybody out. It was a total fluke."

Pixies also unveiled new track 'Women of War' last week, releasing a version of 'Indie Cindy' with the bonus single on it for Record Store Day. Fans who purchased the album discovered the song, which does not feature on the album tracklist and has never been heard before.

The band are also set to headline London's Field Day in Victoria Park this summer (June 8) and will be joined that day by a supporting bill including The Horrors, Temples, Pond, Telegram, The Wytches and a host of others.